Cop Denies Threatening Boy To Confess

Chicago Homicide Detective James Cassidy denied Wednesday that he threatened or coerced an 11-year-old boy to confess to the murder of an 84-year-old woman in 1993.

Testifying in a federal lawsuit challenging the boy's alleged confession, Cassidy said the youth spontaneously blurted out, "I killed her. I hated her. I killed her," while being questioned as a witness.

Cassidy said he believed the boy was telling the truth, even though he had previously given four different statements--ranging from seeing a man in a green jogging suit near the home of the victim to having been inside the house when the woman, Anna Gilvis, was killed by someone else.

Under questioning by Thomas O'Neill, who along with attorney Steven Drizin is representing the youth, now 16, Cassidy denied that he ever raised his voice while questioning the boy or that he cursed or touched the boy during interviews.

Cassidy also denied that he told the boy that if he confessed, God would forgive him and he could go home to a birthday party for his younger brother, contentions the youth made during his testimony on Monday.

The youth also denied again on Monday that he killed Gilvis, saying he confessed only under duress.

The youth was convicted of murder in Juvenile Court in 1994 and placed on probation, which was later revoked following a conviction for aggravated battery. He is now in a juvenile detention facility.

Cassidy's methods of interrogation have come under scrutiny since 1998 when he said two boys, ages 7 and 8, admitted throwing a rock and killing 11-year-old Ryan Harris. Murder charges against the two were later dropped after tests linked semen on the girl's underclothes to Floyd Durr, who is now charged with the killing.

On Oct. 5, 1993, Gilvis was found beaten and stabbed to death in her home next to the boy's apartment in the 7200 block of South California Avenue.